It's Never Too Late For Braves Heroics

"When you're in the minors with this team, you'd get back to your apartment after the game and turn on the Braves game, catch the last few innings," said Jones, the rookie No. 3 hitter. "You'd see somebody like Ron Gant or Terry Pendleton do this and it was like, `Hey, this is what we're supposed to do.'''

Simple as that. Be a Brave and show no fear. Step up to the plate in the final at-bat and win the game. The Braves have done it a major league leading 21 times this season, including Sunday against Colorado and Monday against the Marlins. That's nearly a third of Atlanta's 64 wins.

The incongruous part is that the Braves are second to last in the majors in hitting at .247, ahead of only St. Louis. So how is it that a team that doesn't produce on a regular basis is so good in the clutch?

Haven't these guys ever heard of nerves? Failure? How about reality? These are the types of situations that have made mortals of the likes of Darryl Strawberry and Wade Boggs.

None of that effects this team because the Braves have more of one thing than any team in baseball.

Pitching? Sure, but that's too basic. Their starting rotation puts them in position to win a lot of games this way. The opponent has been held to less than four runs in 18 of the 21 dramatic wins. But Greg Maddux and Co. aren't swinging the sticks at the end.

This team has unparalleled gall. Chutzpah. Arrogance. Whatever you want to call it. Just realize that Jones' demeanor captures the essence of it. Listen a while and it screams out the way high school kids clamor for attention.

"When you've played this game as long as we have, you've seen every situation so many times that you don't worry about failing," Jones said.

If this were Dave Justice, who beat the Marlins with a two-run homer Monday in the bottom of the eighth, that statement might slip by unnoticed. Little more than baseball jabber.

But Jones is 23 and looks like a tall version of one of the batboys. You feel like asking him for ID to make sure the Braves haven't violated any child-labor laws.

Jones, a rookie who didn't play at all in 1994 because of a knee injury, can walk the walk and talk the talk. So can most of the Braves' young players, backing up what Jones was saying about basic training for Bravedom.

Jones, fellow rookie reserve Mike Mordecai, second-year catcher Javier Lopez and outfielder Ryan Klesko, who is in only his second season of playing regularly, have combined for nine of the last at-bat winners. Youth is serving Atlanta well in a sport where youngsters are usually served a healthy dose of humility.

Take Lopez. Last Thursday against Cincinnati, Lopez fell behind 1-2 against hard-throwing reliever Hector Carrasco. The second strike was a straight fastball down the middle that Lopez fouled off, putting him in a decidedly foul mood.

"I got mad, but only for a second," said Lopez, who regained his focus as fast as an automatic lense. "You think about that too long and you lose concentration, hurt your team."

Two pitches later, he drilled a single through the hole on the left side to end the game.

"Our young guys have come through, but that's something we've tried to pass on," said Justice, who leads the Braves with four game-winners. "When I got here, it was TP [Pendleton) or Otis [Nixon) or Ron [Gant) who you would look to. Now we've got me and Fred [McGriff), but we've got a lot of other guys who carry on."

So far, 10 different Braves have played the hero's role.

"Can we win a championship this way? Why not?" Maddux said. "Sure, it's not easy, but you'd rather be doing it now so that when you have to in the playoffs, it's not a big deal."

Maddux has a point. Baseball is a game of repetition and percentages. Some people might counter that by saying that the percentages will catch up with the Braves.

But then there's that arrogance.

"I don't see it as all that big a deal," said Mordecai, who has all of 36 at-bats this season, the fewest of any Braves player. He has two game-winners and another key three-run homer among his nine hits. "Everybody wants to be a hero at this level."